Detect Trichomoniasis Quickly With Simple Finger-Prick

A newly developed Finger-prick test may be an important tool for healthcare providers and individuals infected with Trichomonas vaginalis to upgrade the routine and universal screening of all age groups and at-risk populations. This test will also hopefully enhance the reproductive health of women and men.

Trichomonas vaginalis: Less Popular Sexually Transmitted Infection

Trichomonas vaginalis, also known as trich, is a more common sexually transmitted infection (STI) than chlamydia or gonorrhea which causes no symptoms in about 70% of those infected. Even when asymptomatic, trich is linked to bad health outcomes, including increased susceptibility to HIV, prostate cancer, pregnancy complications, and infertility in women. Trich is easily curable if diagnosed early and researchers have been working for years to improve testing to it more accessible. The latest development explained in the journal Pathogens, is a new finger-prick test that delivers results in five minutes at an affordable price.

Currently, trich is often only diagnosed when symptoms are present, which can include genital itchiness and a burning sensation during urination. The tests in use now are focused on diagnosing women and involve a vaginal swab.

It takes time to get results, and the tests require trained personnel as well as specialized equipment. Other methods recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration also have similar limitations.

Researcher Creates Finger-Prick Test for Common STI Trich

As detailed in this study, the new test requires only a drop of blood to detect an antibody specific to trich. Researchers previously identified this biomarker, an alpha-actinin protein unique to this organism named ACT::SOE3. Both men and women make the antibody when they are infected.

This finger-prick test detects antibodies to the target protein. Like COVID-19 and pregnancy tests, the results are displayed in a window with a dot appearing if the antibody is present, indicating infection. It is a point-of-care diagnostic test meaning positive results lead to immediate treatment and cure of a person. The test does not require specialized training and equipment to administer.

The goal was to meet World Health Organization standards for disease detection, which stands for affordable, sensitive, specific, user-friendly, rapid and robust, equipment-free, and deliverable to end users.

Since trich is a worldwide problem with an estimated 156 million new cases each year, researchers hope the test can ultimately be used in many low-resource countries, particularly in places like Africa where trich is suspected to be a contributing factor in the spread of HIV.

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This STI may be the most neglected among the other curable STIs. One of the major problems is that most people are asymptomatic. In other words, you may have it, but you do not know you have it until you have a bad problem. Patent protection on the new development is in process.

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Source-Eurekalert